I have never been a morning person. Up until my junior year of high school, I dreaded getting up in the morning. I looked forward to the weekends when I could wake up at noon and start my day. But when I turned sixteen and got a job at a bagel shop, there was no more sleeping in for me. I woke up early for school during the week and for my 6:30 a.m. shift on Saturdays and Sundays. I somehow managed this for a year until I dreaded getting up every day and found myself a new job at the end of my senior year.
Summer was coming, and I could sleep in every day. And for once I didn't have to give up my sleep for school because college would allow me to design my own schedule. I was done getting up early for a while.
Well, orientation day came, and I was excited to create my schedule so that I would wake up at 10:00 a.m. every day ... or not. I found out that one of the classes required for my major was only offered at 8 a.m. So, reluctantly, I enrolled. I would rather just get it over with.
8 a.m. classes have pros and cons, but they are something most students have to endure. I will say that I have come to appreciate my sleep on the days that I get to sleep in. It also feels nice to have half of my classes done early. Because I have a later class on the same days, it's good to have a gap between my classes instead of having a busy day with classes back to back.
That being said, it's hard to be successful in a class at such an early hour. When I have just dragged myself out of bed, I find it easier to participate with only half the effort I would normally put in. This isn't a good strategy to do well in a class. What I didn't realize ahead of time was how this would affect the rest of my day. I figured out that it's hard to motivate myself to even go to my later class, because I have spent most of my day being exhausted.
The moral of this story is to listen to your body. Avoid scheduling that will interfere with your natural sleep schedule if you can, and if you can't, just try to make the best of it. Learn what works best for you (drinking three cups of coffee, for example) and always make sure to get enough sleep.
